January 31, 2025 • 18 mins
I emphasize that my success isn’t solely dependent on hard work; it also requires working smarter by developing specialized skills, utilizing my imagination, and crafting an organized plan. I focus on principles such as acquiring specific knowledge relevant to my goals, using my imagination to overcome limitations and foster creativity, and establishing a clear, actionable plan. Specialized knowledge is crucial for achieving my visions, as illustrated by examples like pursuing culinary arts to open a Michelin-star restaurant. I suggest alternative learning methods beyond traditional education, including online courses and mentorship, to fill my knowledge gaps and facilitate immediate learning. I view imagination as vital for innovation and problem-solving, distinguishing between synthetic and creative types. I discuss the importance of brainstorming and visualization, along with identifying innovative side hustles. However, I understand that creativity must be paired with organized planning to transform ideas into reality, ensuring progress through specific goals, deadlines, and adaptability. I encourage myself to take immediate action, share my plans for collaboration, and maintain a mindset focused on improvement and value addition.
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#Leadership #Success #Imagination #SpecializedKnowledge #OrganizedPlanning #Entrepreneurship #PersonalDevelopment #GoalSetting #CreativeThinking #Vision #Innovation #Learning #Mentorship #Mindset #ActionableSteps #Inspiration
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Tim (00:01):
Hey. And welcome back to another episode.
Did you know that the path to success isn't just about working harder? It's about working smarter.
It's about developing the right skills to unleash your creativity and crafting a solid plan
to make your vision a reality.
In the last episodes, we've we talked about a vision.
(00:22):
And we're gonna continue on that vision with, principles 4, 5, and 6.
And those are gonna be really key and insightful as you develop your vision throughout the year.
So, what we're gonna be talking about in this episode is we're gonna be talking about specialized
knowledge, imagination, and organized planning, and how those three additional aspects will
(00:47):
help you make a better vision.
This is Tim Staton with Tim Staton the obvious.
What is this podcast about? It's simple.
You are entitled to great leadership everywhere you go, whether it's your church, whether it's
to work, whether it's at your house, you are entitled to great leadership.
(01:07):
And so in this podcast, we take leadership principles and theories and turn them into everyday relatable and usable advice. And a
Disclaimer (01:16):
quick disclaimer. This show, process or service by trademark, trademark manufacturer, or otherwise
does not necessarily constitute or implied endorsement of anyone that I employed by or favors in the representation.
The views are expressed here in my show are my own expressed and do not necessarily state or
reflect those of any employer.
Tim (01:27):
So Napoleon Hill says that knowledge is only potential power.
It becomes power only when and if it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end.
So what does that really mean?
It means we need specialized knowledge.
And and what is specialized knowledge?
(01:48):
Specialized knowledge is is that you need to acquire specific skills or expertise directly related
to your goals and to your vision.
It's not about knowing everything.
It's about mastering the most knowledge relevant to your success.
So for example, if you have a vision and you wanna open up a business, you can do it without any knowledge.
(02:10):
However, it's going to be a lot harder for you to start if you don't know where to start or how to start.
You've got to find out how to open up a business.
You gotta know what LLCs are.
You gotta know what your state plans are.
You gotta know what the federal laws are.
You gotta know what it is that you're going to do. Right?
And so even more so, let's say, I'm actually reminded of my son the other day.
(02:33):
He asked Tim, he was like, Hey, dad.
He goes, I really like to cook. And I'm like, yeah. I know.
You're you're a great cook.
And he goes, well, can you go to college to be a a cook or a chef? And I said, yeah. Absolutely.
Actually, Johnson and Wales University out of Rhode Island.
Like, you can go there 4 years, get a degree in culinary arts.
And so he goes, oh, well, I could go to school there, then open up my business and open up my own restaurant.
(02:53):
I'm like, you absolutely could.
And so in order to be the best, in order to know where to start on how to cook, he realized, hey.
I need some specialized knowledge on how to cook better, how to put food together, what food palettes are like.
And he understands that he needs to learn a lot more about what goes into the kitchen and he
(03:14):
goes into being a chef than just, hey, I'm gonna go in the kitchen and cook some stuff and put
it on a plate and people are gonna pay me for it.
So if he wants to be a Michelin Staton restaurant owner, he realizes that he needs to go to
school and better his skills.
He needs specialized knowledge in culinary arts.
And we talked about opening up a business.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, you you need to master those skills.
(03:36):
You gotta know about digital marketing.
You've gotta learn how to scale your business.
You gotta learn how to do all of the things that go into opening your own business.
But knowing that you need specialized knowledge isn't just enough.
And I'm not talking about just going to a university because let's face it.
Universities today don't necessarily teach you specialized knowledge.
They teach you general knowledge, and that's good.
(03:58):
But they don't necessarily teach you everything you need to know.
So how can you acquire the skills that you need?
Well, you could take online courses.
You can go to a a a local community college and and find those courses that you need in those
specific skill sets that you're deficient in, and you can do it.
You can look online and start googling, like, Coursera and all these other places.
By the way, none of these are which are sponsored.
(04:18):
They're just places you can go.
And you can get that additional knowledge that you're lacking.
You could find mentors and coaches who have already done this and succeeded and pick their brain and say, hey.
How do I do what you did?
What is it that you did that made this special that I am struggling on and I need to make this better?
How can I do this better?
And then you can also join professional groups.
(04:40):
You can attend a workshop and you continually read, relevant books and articles, listen to podcasts like this.
Not every podcast is gonna enrich your mind.
Listen to the things that are gonna fill you with specialized knowledge. Right?
So we we've already said, but we need specialized knowledge.
We've already said how we can acquire it.
(05:01):
But how do you really apply that?
Well, you need to reflect on your goals and identify the gaps and your current knowledge and
what you need to learn in order to move forward.
So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do right now.
If you're listening to this, and you can, especially if if you're not driving or anything else,
I want you to write down 3 areas of knowledge that you need to develop and commit to learning them today.
(05:25):
We also often put off today what we you know, we often say, hey.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna do this.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna do that. No.
Do it today and commit to it today.
And and that's what brings me to my second point, which is imagination.
You know, Napoleon Hill also said that man's only limitation within reason lies in his development
(05:48):
and use of his imagination.
I've been in a career field for so long that does not promote imagination, even though it says.
It really promotes compliance and following rules and regulations.
And then they ask people to be creative.
They ask people to, you know, figure out innovative ways and be an out of the box thinker.
But what does that really mean?
It means use your imagination.
(06:09):
If you can think about it, then it is possible.
You may not know how to do it because you haven't developed the specialized skills to do it,
which we already talked about. But think big.
Think about what it is, the possibilities of what you can do and what you want to achieve.
You know, earlier in the seventies, sixties seventies, the imagination was like, we're gonna
(06:31):
send a man to the moon.
Whether you believe we did or did not send a man to the moon is irrelevant.
What is relevant is the thought of we're going to send somebody to the moon and we made it happen.
Today, Elon Musk is the spirit of that where he says, we're gonna send a man to Mars.
We're gonna put a person on Mars.
It's the imagination of the possibility that it can be done.
(06:54):
Because if you can think about it, then it can happen.
You know, the Wright brothers who invented the first airplane, his parents and his father told
him, no, you can't you can't fly.
If God wanted you to fly, he would've given you wings.
Don't let other people take away your imagination.
You know, imagination is the spark of creativity that helps you generate ideas and solutions.
It's the ability to envision possibilities that don't yet exist.
(07:18):
You know, and there's 2 types of imagination that we can think of.
We can think of synthetic imagination, and that's combining existing ideas in new ways.
So for example, the iPhone.
Steve Jobs drew on a piece of paper what he wanted the phone to look like, and he liked the
art and the calligraphy behind it.
And he said, I want a phone to do this.
And all of his engineers said, it can't be done. It can't be done.
(07:38):
He goes, yes, it can. I just drew it.
Figure out how to make it happen. Right? That's synthetic imagination.
Here, he knew a cell phone existed.
We already knew that if I pressed keys, it would happen.
But how can I do it by touching it with my finger instead of touching a keypad?
Then there's creative imagination, which is entirely new ideas that emerge through inspiration
or intuition, something that nobody else has ever thought about before.
(08:03):
Something about putting a man on Mars.
You know, how do we do that?
Something about, I'm not really in a creative mindset right now, even though I'm still doing this episode.
But there's tons of new things that you can think of that could put something together, and you can achieve it.
But why is this important?
Well, imagination helps solve problems, adapt to challenges, and create opportunities that other people might not see.
(08:27):
Right now, people are saying, well, the economy is horrible.
But yet so many people are doing well.
So many people are investing in so many other opportunities like crypto, stock markets.
Even though the stock market's still going down, people are still investing in new ways.
There's new and innovative ways that this new administration said that, hey, we're gonna tax other countries.
Well, that's that's new and it's different.
(08:47):
Nobody ever thought about that before.
And now they're talking about it.
It's the driving force behind innovation that really drives entrepreneurship and leadership.
Without your personal vision, without that vision of this is where this company is going to
go, this is where I am going to go, this is where my family is going to go.
And I'm gonna be as imaginative as I can about it, and I'm gonna figure out how to get there.
(09:13):
But how do we cultivate imagination?
Well, you could do a couple of things.
You could do brainstorming, where you could spend 10 minutes daily writing the writing down
ideas no matter how wild they may seem.
Just write down all the ideas.
Just write down all the things that you could possibly think of.
There's no wrong answers when you're brainstorming.
If you're like, oh, you know, I wanna figure out how to make horses fly with wings and everything else.
(09:34):
Figure it out how to do that.
It it it doesn't matter what it is.
It's you thinking about things as being as creative as you can.
You can go inspiration hunting.
You can surround yourself with creative environments by reading books, visiting art galleries,
listening to podcasts outside of your normal realm.
Often, I read books from people that I don't agree with because that gives me inspiration on
(09:57):
what I need to do to overcome somebody else's thought patterns. Visualization.
You know, you can imagine and mentally rehearse your future success.
Because whatever whatever, you know, you have for your vision and your goals, and you mentalize
that, and you're like, okay.
This is what this is going to look like.
This is what this is going feel like, then that's gonna further drive your creativity and further
(10:23):
drive your desire, which we talked about in the last episode, to really get out there.
So that's what we talked about for that.
So what I what I want you to do is I want you to think about these things and start writing them down.
Write down what are 1 or 2 side hustles that you could do today that solves somebody else's problem creatively.
(10:43):
And one thing that comes to mind is I read an article about a gentleman.
I think he was in Georgia.
He goes, you know, nobody really likes taking their trash out to the side of the road, but I
wonder if I could get everyone to pay me $1.
And on trash day, I'll go to their houses really early in the morning.
I'll put the trash out by the road so they don't have to.
And in this gentleman's neighborhood, there were, I think, over, like, 300 homes.
(11:05):
And he convinced, like, 200 people to give them a dollar.
He made $200 for 40 minutes worth of work of putting everybody's trash can out by the road.
So he went to a different neighborhood. He was like, hey.
You know, I I do this for one neighborhood.
Can I do it for you?
It's only gonna cost you $1 a day.
And he figured out how to do it on the same day.
And he ended up making, like, $1,000 a day just because he got a 1,000 people to agree to pay
(11:29):
him $1 to put the trash out by the road. Something creative.
Something nobody thought about before.
You know, the trash man, he comes to your house.
You pay him to take it out away from the street.
Well, if you usually forget things, well, now he solved a problem for you.
He found a way to be value added through creativity.
So think about how you can be value added to somebody else through an a creative process.
(11:52):
But creativity isn't the only thing that will get us there.
You know, we we talked about getting specialized knowledge.
We talked about being creative and having our imagination get us to our vision.
But our vision has to be organized and planned out.
You have to plan your work, and your work has to be planned.
So organized planning is about turning your ideas and knowledge into an actionable step.
(12:16):
It's that bridge between where you are and where you want to be.
And it's so important because without a plan, even the best ideas remained unrealized.
A clear plan eliminates uncertainty.
It keeps you focused and provides a way to measure progress.
So how can we improve our planning?
Well, we need to define our goals, and we need to be specific in our vision.
(12:39):
Instead of saying, I wanna make money, say, I want to increase my income by $20,000 a year.
Then you gotta break it down and divide it into a smaller actionable steps.
Create daily checklists, weekly checklists, monthly task lists.
Because if you think about it, $20,000 a year seems like a lot of money.
Well, if you go, okay.
Well, $20,000 a year is a lot of money.
(13:01):
How can I break that down?
What is that number every day that I gotta make in order to achieve that goal?
And then you just figure out what that number is and you figure out how you could be value added
to somebody else, and that's going to improve your vision by being an organized plan.
You need to set deadlines and realistic timelines each step of the way.
(13:21):
And by creating a deadline, you automatically create an urgency and you apply some accountability to that.
But you also need to remember that you gotta be flexible because no plan survives first contact.
So plans should evolve as you face new challenges and opportunities, and you need to think about
where you need to go and how you need to get there.
You know, we we talked we talked about the guy who did the trash cans for $1 a day $1 per can per house. He thought about it. Then he goes, okay.
(13:48):
Well, how do I achieve this?
And he goes, well, I need to get I need to get people on board.
So he he went out.
He just went door to door knocking. And he goes, hey.
I I've got a deadline.
That's your trash next week. Give me a dollar.
I'll come out, put it on there.
You want me to do it again? I'll come back.
You can pay me a dollar.
I'll put it out there. He thought about it.
He had a clear plan.
He had a starting point, and then he had an end point.
(14:08):
I'm a very detailed, plan oriented person.
So when I come up with plans, I'm constantly thinking about what is it that I need to do next
in order to achieve my goals?
I have three things that I do every single day that get after my 3 weekly goals, which then
get after my 3 monthly goals, which then get after my 3 quarterly goals, which then drives me to my yearly goals.
(14:29):
And I'm never satisfied once I achieve that goal. I always up it.
How can I get better?
How can I ramp this up?
How can I be better?
How can I be more value added to the next person?
And it just goes on and on and on.
So when you're thinking about your vision for yourself, right, you can include this into your
business, but the last, you know, couple episodes we've talked about vision, was really having
(14:52):
faith in God and in yourself that this is gonna happen.
A burning desire and a purpose and a reason why you're going to do it.
You need to auto suggest to yourself that you're going to achieve it and constantly remind yourself
of your goals and your vision of where you want to go.
And if you lack any knowledge, you need to develop specialized knowledge in order to do that.
(15:13):
You got to keep learning the specific skills that you need because you're never going to know everything.
You need to have that imagination.
Use your creativity to dream big and find innovative ways to be valued to other people and your
personal life and in your organization.
Then you need to have an organized plan.
You need to create a step by step roadmap to achieve your goals.
(15:35):
It's interesting to note that success doesn't happen by accident.
It's built through knowledge, sparked by imagination, and executed with a plan.
If you take these principles and start applying them to your life today, you're gonna be so
surprised at what you can achieve with just this limited amount of knowledge.
So in the next episode, what we're gonna talk about is how persistence and the power of decision
(15:59):
making can keep you moving forward even when the road gets tough.
So a couple of things before we go that I'm gonna ask you to do when it comes to making a vision
for yourself, specifically with these things.
I want you to think about what specialized knowledge you need to succeed in your goals and your vision.
I need you to take action today.
(16:20):
Research a book, a course, or a mentorship opportunity to help you grow.
And who is that gonna be?
And take that step today.
The second thing I'm gonna ask of you is to spend time using your imagination.
Ask yourself, what's the boldest idea I could pursue in life right now?
Write it down and let yourself dream big about it.
(16:43):
Then ask yourself, what is one big goal you've been dreaming about?
Sit down, write it out, and put it into actionable steps.
And remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish.
You could play the lottery all day long. It's just a wish.
Your chances of winning the lottery are next to nothing.
Your chances of improving your life by running out your goals and getting after the things that
(17:05):
you say you can do are exponentially higher.
And then lastly, if you could, I'm really interested in what your thoughts on this are.
If you could share your plans or imaginative ideas on our Facebook page or our Instagram page, please do that.
Help us, you know, further this knowledge with other folks so that they can get inspired by ideas too.
Because remember, we can synthesize creativity together. And who knows?
(17:29):
You might find a potential business partner by sharing your idea.
As always, thank you for stopping by and listening to this episode.
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Before we go, I would like it to ask you another favor if I could.
If you could please share this episode with 1 or 2 other people who you think might like this topic.
If you haven't followed or subscribed on this platform that you're listening to on, please hit
that button so you can be alerted, when we post another episode.
(17:52):
I really don't wanna waste your time.
If you got some value out of this episode, please leave a review or a comment so we can help
spread the show with people who might be interested in a topic, but just haven't found our show yet.
Again, thanks for stopping by.
I'm Tim Staten, Statham of the Agios.
Hey. And welcome back to another episode.
Did you know that the path to success isn't just about working harder? It's about working smarter.
It's about developing the right skills to unleash your creativity and crafting a solid plan
to make your vision a reality.
In the last episodes, we've we talked about a vision.
(00:22):
And we're gonna continue on that vision with, principles 4, 5, and 6.
And those are gonna be really key and insightful as you develop your vision throughout the year.
So, what we're gonna be talking about in this episode is we're gonna be talking about specialized
knowledge, imagination, and organized planning, and how those three additional aspects will
(00:47):
help you make a better vision.
This is Tim Staton with Tim Staton the obvious.
What is this podcast about? It's simple.
You are entitled to great leadership everywhere you go, whether it's your church, whether it's
to work, whether it's at your house, you are entitled to great leadership.
(01:07):
And so in this podcast, we take leadership principles and theories and turn them into everyday relatable and usable advice. And a
Disclaimer (01:16):
quick disclaimer. This show, process or service by trademark, trademark manufacturer, or otherwise
does not necessarily constitute or implied endorsement of anyone that I employed by or favors in the representation.
The views are expressed here in my show are my own expressed and do not necessarily state or
reflect those of any employer.
Tim (01:27):
So Napoleon Hill says that knowledge is only potential power.
It becomes power only when and if it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end.
So what does that really mean?
It means we need specialized knowledge.
And and what is specialized knowledge?
(01:48):
Specialized knowledge is is that you need to acquire specific skills or expertise directly related
to your goals and to your vision.
It's not about knowing everything.
It's about mastering the most knowledge relevant to your success.
So for example, if you have a vision and you wanna open up a business, you can do it without any knowledge.
(02:10):
However, it's going to be a lot harder for you to start if you don't know where to start or how to start.
You've got to find out how to open up a business.
You gotta know what LLCs are.
You gotta know what your state plans are.
You gotta know what the federal laws are.
You gotta know what it is that you're going to do. Right?
And so even more so, let's say, I'm actually reminded of my son the other day.
(02:33):
He asked Tim, he was like, Hey, dad.
He goes, I really like to cook. And I'm like, yeah. I know.
You're you're a great cook.
And he goes, well, can you go to college to be a a cook or a chef? And I said, yeah. Absolutely.
Actually, Johnson and Wales University out of Rhode Island.
Like, you can go there 4 years, get a degree in culinary arts.
And so he goes, oh, well, I could go to school there, then open up my business and open up my own restaurant.
(02:53):
I'm like, you absolutely could.
And so in order to be the best, in order to know where to start on how to cook, he realized, hey.
I need some specialized knowledge on how to cook better, how to put food together, what food palettes are like.
And he understands that he needs to learn a lot more about what goes into the kitchen and he
(03:14):
goes into being a chef than just, hey, I'm gonna go in the kitchen and cook some stuff and put
it on a plate and people are gonna pay me for it.
So if he wants to be a Michelin Staton restaurant owner, he realizes that he needs to go to
school and better his skills.
He needs specialized knowledge in culinary arts.
And we talked about opening up a business.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, you you need to master those skills.
(03:36):
You gotta know about digital marketing.
You've gotta learn how to scale your business.
You gotta learn how to do all of the things that go into opening your own business.
But knowing that you need specialized knowledge isn't just enough.
And I'm not talking about just going to a university because let's face it.
Universities today don't necessarily teach you specialized knowledge.
They teach you general knowledge, and that's good.
(03:58):
But they don't necessarily teach you everything you need to know.
So how can you acquire the skills that you need?
Well, you could take online courses.
You can go to a a a local community college and and find those courses that you need in those
specific skill sets that you're deficient in, and you can do it.
You can look online and start googling, like, Coursera and all these other places.
By the way, none of these are which are sponsored.
(04:18):
They're just places you can go.
And you can get that additional knowledge that you're lacking.
You could find mentors and coaches who have already done this and succeeded and pick their brain and say, hey.
How do I do what you did?
What is it that you did that made this special that I am struggling on and I need to make this better?
How can I do this better?
And then you can also join professional groups.
(04:40):
You can attend a workshop and you continually read, relevant books and articles, listen to podcasts like this.
Not every podcast is gonna enrich your mind.
Listen to the things that are gonna fill you with specialized knowledge. Right?
So we we've already said, but we need specialized knowledge.
We've already said how we can acquire it.
(05:01):
But how do you really apply that?
Well, you need to reflect on your goals and identify the gaps and your current knowledge and
what you need to learn in order to move forward.
So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do right now.
If you're listening to this, and you can, especially if if you're not driving or anything else,
I want you to write down 3 areas of knowledge that you need to develop and commit to learning them today.
(05:25):
We also often put off today what we you know, we often say, hey.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna do this.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna do that. No.
Do it today and commit to it today.
And and that's what brings me to my second point, which is imagination.
You know, Napoleon Hill also said that man's only limitation within reason lies in his development
(05:48):
and use of his imagination.
I've been in a career field for so long that does not promote imagination, even though it says.
It really promotes compliance and following rules and regulations.
And then they ask people to be creative.
They ask people to, you know, figure out innovative ways and be an out of the box thinker.
But what does that really mean?
It means use your imagination.
(06:09):
If you can think about it, then it is possible.
You may not know how to do it because you haven't developed the specialized skills to do it,
which we already talked about. But think big.
Think about what it is, the possibilities of what you can do and what you want to achieve.
You know, earlier in the seventies, sixties seventies, the imagination was like, we're gonna
(06:31):
send a man to the moon.
Whether you believe we did or did not send a man to the moon is irrelevant.
What is relevant is the thought of we're going to send somebody to the moon and we made it happen.
Today, Elon Musk is the spirit of that where he says, we're gonna send a man to Mars.
We're gonna put a person on Mars.
It's the imagination of the possibility that it can be done.
(06:54):
Because if you can think about it, then it can happen.
You know, the Wright brothers who invented the first airplane, his parents and his father told
him, no, you can't you can't fly.
If God wanted you to fly, he would've given you wings.
Don't let other people take away your imagination.
You know, imagination is the spark of creativity that helps you generate ideas and solutions.
It's the ability to envision possibilities that don't yet exist.
(07:18):
You know, and there's 2 types of imagination that we can think of.
We can think of synthetic imagination, and that's combining existing ideas in new ways.
So for example, the iPhone.
Steve Jobs drew on a piece of paper what he wanted the phone to look like, and he liked the
art and the calligraphy behind it.
And he said, I want a phone to do this.
And all of his engineers said, it can't be done. It can't be done.
(07:38):
He goes, yes, it can. I just drew it.
Figure out how to make it happen. Right? That's synthetic imagination.
Here, he knew a cell phone existed.
We already knew that if I pressed keys, it would happen.
But how can I do it by touching it with my finger instead of touching a keypad?
Then there's creative imagination, which is entirely new ideas that emerge through inspiration
or intuition, something that nobody else has ever thought about before.
(08:03):
Something about putting a man on Mars.
You know, how do we do that?
Something about, I'm not really in a creative mindset right now, even though I'm still doing this episode.
But there's tons of new things that you can think of that could put something together, and you can achieve it.
But why is this important?
Well, imagination helps solve problems, adapt to challenges, and create opportunities that other people might not see.
(08:27):
Right now, people are saying, well, the economy is horrible.
But yet so many people are doing well.
So many people are investing in so many other opportunities like crypto, stock markets.
Even though the stock market's still going down, people are still investing in new ways.
There's new and innovative ways that this new administration said that, hey, we're gonna tax other countries.
Well, that's that's new and it's different.
(08:47):
Nobody ever thought about that before.
And now they're talking about it.
It's the driving force behind innovation that really drives entrepreneurship and leadership.
Without your personal vision, without that vision of this is where this company is going to
go, this is where I am going to go, this is where my family is going to go.
And I'm gonna be as imaginative as I can about it, and I'm gonna figure out how to get there.
(09:13):
But how do we cultivate imagination?
Well, you could do a couple of things.
You could do brainstorming, where you could spend 10 minutes daily writing the writing down
ideas no matter how wild they may seem.
Just write down all the ideas.
Just write down all the things that you could possibly think of.
There's no wrong answers when you're brainstorming.
If you're like, oh, you know, I wanna figure out how to make horses fly with wings and everything else.
(09:34):
Figure it out how to do that.
It it it doesn't matter what it is.
It's you thinking about things as being as creative as you can.
You can go inspiration hunting.
You can surround yourself with creative environments by reading books, visiting art galleries,
listening to podcasts outside of your normal realm.
Often, I read books from people that I don't agree with because that gives me inspiration on
(09:57):
what I need to do to overcome somebody else's thought patterns. Visualization.
You know, you can imagine and mentally rehearse your future success.
Because whatever whatever, you know, you have for your vision and your goals, and you mentalize
that, and you're like, okay.
This is what this is going to look like.
This is what this is going feel like, then that's gonna further drive your creativity and further
(10:23):
drive your desire, which we talked about in the last episode, to really get out there.
So that's what we talked about for that.
So what I what I want you to do is I want you to think about these things and start writing them down.
Write down what are 1 or 2 side hustles that you could do today that solves somebody else's problem creatively.
(10:43):
And one thing that comes to mind is I read an article about a gentleman.
I think he was in Georgia.
He goes, you know, nobody really likes taking their trash out to the side of the road, but I
wonder if I could get everyone to pay me $1.
And on trash day, I'll go to their houses really early in the morning.
I'll put the trash out by the road so they don't have to.
And in this gentleman's neighborhood, there were, I think, over, like, 300 homes.
(11:05):
And he convinced, like, 200 people to give them a dollar.
He made $200 for 40 minutes worth of work of putting everybody's trash can out by the road.
So he went to a different neighborhood. He was like, hey.
You know, I I do this for one neighborhood.
Can I do it for you?
It's only gonna cost you $1 a day.
And he figured out how to do it on the same day.
And he ended up making, like, $1,000 a day just because he got a 1,000 people to agree to pay
(11:29):
him $1 to put the trash out by the road. Something creative.
Something nobody thought about before.
You know, the trash man, he comes to your house.
You pay him to take it out away from the street.
Well, if you usually forget things, well, now he solved a problem for you.
He found a way to be value added through creativity.
So think about how you can be value added to somebody else through an a creative process.
(11:52):
But creativity isn't the only thing that will get us there.
You know, we we talked about getting specialized knowledge.
We talked about being creative and having our imagination get us to our vision.
But our vision has to be organized and planned out.
You have to plan your work, and your work has to be planned.
So organized planning is about turning your ideas and knowledge into an actionable step.
(12:16):
It's that bridge between where you are and where you want to be.
And it's so important because without a plan, even the best ideas remained unrealized.
A clear plan eliminates uncertainty.
It keeps you focused and provides a way to measure progress.
So how can we improve our planning?
Well, we need to define our goals, and we need to be specific in our vision.
(12:39):
Instead of saying, I wanna make money, say, I want to increase my income by $20,000 a year.
Then you gotta break it down and divide it into a smaller actionable steps.
Create daily checklists, weekly checklists, monthly task lists.
Because if you think about it, $20,000 a year seems like a lot of money.
Well, if you go, okay.
Well, $20,000 a year is a lot of money.
(13:01):
How can I break that down?
What is that number every day that I gotta make in order to achieve that goal?
And then you just figure out what that number is and you figure out how you could be value added
to somebody else, and that's going to improve your vision by being an organized plan.
You need to set deadlines and realistic timelines each step of the way.
(13:21):
And by creating a deadline, you automatically create an urgency and you apply some accountability to that.
But you also need to remember that you gotta be flexible because no plan survives first contact.
So plans should evolve as you face new challenges and opportunities, and you need to think about
where you need to go and how you need to get there.
You know, we we talked we talked about the guy who did the trash cans for $1 a day $1 per can per house. He thought about it. Then he goes, okay.
(13:48):
Well, how do I achieve this?
And he goes, well, I need to get I need to get people on board.
So he he went out.
He just went door to door knocking. And he goes, hey.
I I've got a deadline.
That's your trash next week. Give me a dollar.
I'll come out, put it on there.
You want me to do it again? I'll come back.
You can pay me a dollar.
I'll put it out there. He thought about it.
He had a clear plan.
He had a starting point, and then he had an end point.
(14:08):
I'm a very detailed, plan oriented person.
So when I come up with plans, I'm constantly thinking about what is it that I need to do next
in order to achieve my goals?
I have three things that I do every single day that get after my 3 weekly goals, which then
get after my 3 monthly goals, which then get after my 3 quarterly goals, which then drives me to my yearly goals.
(14:29):
And I'm never satisfied once I achieve that goal. I always up it.
How can I get better?
How can I ramp this up?
How can I be better?
How can I be more value added to the next person?
And it just goes on and on and on.
So when you're thinking about your vision for yourself, right, you can include this into your
business, but the last, you know, couple episodes we've talked about vision, was really having
(14:52):
faith in God and in yourself that this is gonna happen.
A burning desire and a purpose and a reason why you're going to do it.
You need to auto suggest to yourself that you're going to achieve it and constantly remind yourself
of your goals and your vision of where you want to go.
And if you lack any knowledge, you need to develop specialized knowledge in order to do that.
(15:13):
You got to keep learning the specific skills that you need because you're never going to know everything.
You need to have that imagination.
Use your creativity to dream big and find innovative ways to be valued to other people and your
personal life and in your organization.
Then you need to have an organized plan.
You need to create a step by step roadmap to achieve your goals.
(15:35):
It's interesting to note that success doesn't happen by accident.
It's built through knowledge, sparked by imagination, and executed with a plan.
If you take these principles and start applying them to your life today, you're gonna be so
surprised at what you can achieve with just this limited amount of knowledge.
So in the next episode, what we're gonna talk about is how persistence and the power of decision
(15:59):
making can keep you moving forward even when the road gets tough.
So a couple of things before we go that I'm gonna ask you to do when it comes to making a vision
for yourself, specifically with these things.
I want you to think about what specialized knowledge you need to succeed in your goals and your vision.
I need you to take action today.
(16:20):
Research a book, a course, or a mentorship opportunity to help you grow.
And who is that gonna be?
And take that step today.
The second thing I'm gonna ask of you is to spend time using your imagination.
Ask yourself, what's the boldest idea I could pursue in life right now?
Write it down and let yourself dream big about it.
(16:43):
Then ask yourself, what is one big goal you've been dreaming about?
Sit down, write it out, and put it into actionable steps.
And remember, a goal without a plan is just a wish.
You could play the lottery all day long. It's just a wish.
Your chances of winning the lottery are next to nothing.
Your chances of improving your life by running out your goals and getting after the things that
(17:05):
you say you can do are exponentially higher.
And then lastly, if you could, I'm really interested in what your thoughts on this are.
If you could share your plans or imaginative ideas on our Facebook page or our Instagram page, please do that.
Help us, you know, further this knowledge with other folks so that they can get inspired by ideas too.
Because remember, we can synthesize creativity together. And who knows?
(17:29):
You might find a potential business partner by sharing your idea.
As always, thank you for stopping by and listening to this episode.
I really hope that you enjoyed it.
Before we go, I would like it to ask you another favor if I could.
If you could please share this episode with 1 or 2 other people who you think might like this topic.
If you haven't followed or subscribed on this platform that you're listening to on, please hit
that button so you can be alerted, when we post another episode.
(17:52):
I really don't wanna waste your time.
If you got some value out of this episode, please leave a review or a comment so we can help
spread the show with people who might be interested in a topic, but just haven't found our show yet.
Again, thanks for stopping by.
I'm Tim Staten, Statham of the Agios.
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